Characteristics of recreational fishing in inland water fishery cooperatives for which a high ratio of total income is generated from recreational fishing license fees

The main taxonomic categories of species released, and habitat into which species were released, for each of 470 inland water fishery cooperatives (IWFCs) throughout Japan were extracted and categorized from IWFC business reports for 2017. IWFCs for which a high ratio of their total income was generated from recreational fishing license fees were extracted from these 470 IWFCs. Of these, 47 (10%) were identified as high-ranking, for which we analyzed the characteristics of their recreational fisheries. Compared with other IWFCs, these 47 highest-ranking IWFCs mainly released Japanese smelt Hypomesus nipponensis or Japanese crucian carp Carassius cuvieri into lake and marsh habitats. Many (85.1%) of these 47 IWFCs were located within or adjacent to heavily populated prefectures, or they were located in prefectures that were easily accessible from some heavily populated prefectures.